A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE LARGER AQUATIC 
PLANTS OF LAKE MENDOTA 1 
H. W. Rickett 
Notes from the Biological Laboratory of the Wisconsin Geological and 
Natural History Survey. XVII. 
Introduction 
The object of this study is to determine as nearly as possible 
the quantities of the various species of attached plants growing 
on the bottom of Lake Mendota. Incidentally the data furnish 
a basis for comparisons of the growths on different types of lake 
bottom and at different depths. 
The work was done for the Wisconsin Geological and Natural 
History Survey, under the direction of Professor Chancey Juday. 
For the identification of the plants collected I am indebted to the 
work by Professor R. H. Denniston embodied in the preceding 
paper (Note XVI). No work having been done, so far as I am 
aware, that is exactly comparable to that which forms the subject 
of the present report, the method followed was of necessity origi¬ 
nal and experimental, and consequently subject to modifications 
as the work progressed. Reference may be made to similar studies 
on aquatic animal life (4), to quantitative studies of marine fauna 
and flora (3,6), and to less exact ecological work on lake floras 
(1,5). Many of the data relating to the physical characteristics 
of Lake Mendota were obtained from Muttkowski’s work on the 
animal life of the lake (4). 
1 This investigation was made in cooperation with the U. S. Bureau of Fisher¬ 
ies, and the results are published with the permission of the Commissioner of 
Fisheries. 
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